Twitter is dead, long live Tumblr

By Joerg Colberg
Jul 28, 2009

That’s not a statement about the merits of Twitter or Tumblr. It’s a statement about my own Twitter account, which I tried to use for stuff that wouldn’t make it onto this blog - short links maybe, or pictures I’d come across, or shorter thoughts or reactions. Thing is, though, if you have only 140 characters, there’s no way you can create anything meaningful (don’t believe the hype!). I often ended up having to write a whole series of “tweets” for the most basic stuff, and posting images was impossible. I often ended up wasting a lot of time trying to figure out how to post something. And having just snippets of thoughts and (external) links or pictures really promotes ADD. So I just gave up on it. Instead, Tumblr seems to be the kind of tool I am looking for (starting a second Movable Type blog would be another option), so there now is Conscientious Redux, which is basically going to be what was impossible to do with Twitter. We’ll see how that goes. All these sites (Twitter, Tumblr, …) are tools, and I think it’s important to find out which ones work and which not. It’s like with cameras: Sure, a Leica comes with a name, but if it doesn’t serve your purpose, you’re wasting your time and money.